Enemy combatants often use explosive devices such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to cause damage, injury, and death. IEDs remain a leading killer of Allied forces. Insurgents search for discarded weapon materials amid the abundant rubble to make homemade explosives (HMEs). For example, a common technique involves packing expended artillery rounds with new explosives and emplacing them as road-side or buried IEDs. Protection of vehicles and personnel against such threats is an important issue in the area of defense research. Accordingly, personnel are trained to deal with homemade explosives. During training, military and law enforcement personnel use IED simulators that help personnel identify homemade explosives and react to their effects in real-time simulations. Simulators should replicate the explosive effect of an improvised road-side bomb. The simulators of the present invention can simulate the audio and visual impacts of explosions of an IED in a live training scenario without the likelihood of injury.